


He Who Carried The World

by EbaTan



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Literal Sleeping Together, Reader-Insert, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-22 22:23:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16606568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EbaTan/pseuds/EbaTan
Summary: "You woke to the sound of rain crashing against the window panes."A short, sappy one shot written while I was recovering from surgery.





	He Who Carried The World

**Author's Note:**

> So... On 9/12/18, I was in an accident and broke my wrist and my forearm in both bones! I ended up needing surgery and now have a titanium plate and screws holding my poor, dumb bones together. As a result, I had to halt work on my other fic ('How Big, How Blue'). Following surgery, I was on pain killers and super out of it for a looong time, but somehow I managed to pump this sucker out with one hand on my phone. I honestly do not remember writing it and it was not good by ANY means. 
> 
> Now that I'm in recovery and finally have some small use over my fingers again, I figured I'd clean it up and put it out there as reminder that I'm still alive. I promise that work on 'How Big, How Blue' will resume shorty! My time spent stuck in bed helped me come up with a million new writing ideas, so I'm eager to get back to writing! 
> 
> For now, please enjoy this poorly written, drug-induced fluff piece!

You woke to the sound of rain crashing against the window panes. 

The bedroom was dark when you opened your eyes, illuminated only slightly by the rays of moonlight that managed to escape from behind the curtains. Shadows seemed to dance as they cascaded against whatever surface they could reach, an illusion caused by the storm. The digital clock on the bedside table you were already facing read a quarter past three in the morning. You let out a small, defeated sigh, unable to remember the last time you had successfully slept through an entire night without a sleeping aid. After only two measly hours of sleep, you found yourself awake.

While mentally cursing at yourself for being not only a light sleeper, but also a chronic insomniac, you felt the warm body behind you stir ever so slightly. Only just realizing that there was an arm wrapped your waist, you slowly looked over your shoulder towards the owner whose face was currently buried in the back of your neck. 

It felt like forever since you saw Seto asleep. This was one of the busiest times of the year for his company, so you learned to tolerate his absence and the subsequently cantankerous demeanor that seemed to swallow him whole. It also meant that most nights he was forced to sleep in his office. You managed to keep yourself occupied with work and college as not to get in his way. The rare times he did manage to make it home to you, you were asleep before he arrived and awoke long after he left. Had it not been for the way he tossed in his sleep (always waking you up briefly) and the pile of worn clothes left haphazardly near his beside, you would never have known that he made it home at all. 

You lifted his arm up gently, slowly turned your body to face his, scooched down a bit so that you weren’t entirely in his face, then placed his arm back down against you. Tired eyes scanned over his face in a desperate attempt to memorize and store this moment forever within your heart. Even though you made an effort to bring him lunch on the days you weren't working as an excuse to see him briefly, you had seen him so little recently that you feared you might forget his face entirely. You chased off the small feeling of jealousy that started to form towards his employees that were forced to see him everyday whether they liked it or not.

They might not consider themselves lucky, but you sure did.

Dark circles bruised the skin underneath his eyes and a faint shadow was starting to form around his jaw. His unkempt hair, still slightly damp from being caught in the rain on his way home, looked as if he had run his hands through it almost constantly throughout the day. The Great Seto Kaiba— a man who almost obsessively kept himself pristine and presentable at all times— seemed to be falling apart before your very eyes. You worried that the creases in his forehead from incessant scowling would remain there forever

Seto made loving him feel like a full-time job; an occupation of which you would fancy yourself a seasoned professional. His moods ranged anywhere from utterly indifferent to absolutely seething and were subject to change at any moment for any number of reasons. He was selfish, narcissistic, stubborn beyond reason, cold, vengeful, determined, frustratingly obsessed with success, and emotionally stunted. His pride was the sole focus of his day-to-day. During the early stages of your relationship, you considered him to be impossible to read and resigned yourself to a possible future of forever walking glass, if there was a future to be had at all.

Nowadays, however, you knew things weren’t so entirely bleak. Eyes still scouring his features, you found your mind sorting through all the ways he, in sprite of all his faults, managed to also make loving him so damn hard to resist.

You were laying next to one of the most dangerous and powerful men in Japan, yet you had never before felt so safe. His faithfulness to you was unwavering and you knew that he cared deeply. Even if he did not say so with words, he did not have to. His actions spoke for him. Time and time again, Seto was willing to spin the world in reverse should you need him too. As the world quaked beneath your feet, tearing the foundations of your life asunder, he was always there with you amongst the rubble, helping to rebuild.

Every time the dust would clear, you expected him to be gone just like everyone else. You had grown accustomed to abandonment. 

Every time you were wrong.

The man was indomitable.

He was Atlas; a Titan that carried your world on his shoulders.

_ I would tell him, but I don’t think we’d survive the impact of his ego exploding _ , you thought to yourself with a slight chuckle. 

A heat began to swell deep in your chest. You had just compared him to a god, yet the weary mess before you was proof that he was just as mortal as everyone else. The level of stress and exhaustion that it took to make an Olympian like him look the way he did now must have been unimaginable. While you prided yourself on the independence you managed to hold on to while he was locked away at work, you had not considered how he carried on in the absence of you. You had not even considered he was  _ capable _ of being tired until you were able to get this close. 

You became fraught with worry and guilt.

You boyfriend was no god, but you never wanted him to feel like anything less. With the corporate snakes biting at his heels and demands of consumers reaching critical mass, he was neglecting his health in favor of productivity. You would never know this— and he would not admit it to himself until much later in your relationship— but after having you around for so long, he found himself leaning just as much on you as you leaned on him. You brought him healthier meals than he usually would eat if he just ordered food to his office, made sure he always had plenty of migraine medication around, and any rage he might have felt during a particularly bad day subsided the minute he laid eyes on. 

You, a mortal born of nothing, found yourself in the center of his universe. 

A constant source of strength and security.

A world he didn’t need to carry.

Unable to resist any longer, you reached up to cup his face with you hands, gently caressing his cheeks with you thumbs. As gentle as you tried to be, you still managed to wake him up. He let out a soft groan.

A moment passed before he opened his eyes to meet yours, pulling you closer to his chest and wrapping you up completely. He closed his eyes again and pressed his nose to your forehead. You heard a deep inhale as he took in your scent. 

“Did I wake you?,” he whispered into you. 

“No. When did you get home?”

“Around 2:30.”

Great, he had been asleep a whole forty five minutes before you woke him.

You tilted his face down slightly to meet yours as you slowly paraded gentle, tender kisses sweetly around his lips. You missed him, and you needed him to know it. Exhausted, he made no effort to kiss you back, instead choosing to simply take in sudden shower of affection. 

“I’m not in the mood, stop trying to get in my pants,” He smirked, eyes still closed.  

“I’m not,” you spoke in between smooches. “I just missed you.”

“Well I’m here now, so you can stop.” 

Usually you were more than happy to disregard any attempts Seto made at denying your public displays of affections when the two of you were in front of others and opted to continue as you wanted, so he had not expected you to actually do what he asked. In fact, he didn’t really want you to stop, but your almost-morning breath left little to be desired. 

When he noticed that you were no longer kissing him, he opened one eye to peer at you curiously. You were smiling, but your eyes were almost sorrowful. 

“I’m coming with you to work,” you said, voice almost cracking as you choked back a near cry. “All day.”

There was determination in your eyes now. A moment passed as he considered it.

“What about work?” He asked.

“I’ll call in sick.”

“There will be nothing for you to do— ”

“I’ll bring my school assignments.”

“— and I might have to stay the night.”

“I’ll pack a toothbrush.”

“Are you going to start complaining again if I have to raise my voice while making an example of someone?”

“Scream your heart out.”

“And if I end up raising my voice at you?”

“You won’t.”

“You seem rather sure of that.”

“I am.”

“I can’t afford any distractions.”

“You won’t even know I’m there.”

Seto scoffed.

“You grossly underestimate your ability to steal my attention, even without trying.”

You choose to take that as a compliment. He closed his eyes again in contemplation and remained silent for what felt like forever. You might have thought he had fallen back asleep, had he not eventually brought you up to meet his lips in a deep kiss. 

He would argue no more than that. Conceding, he broke from the kiss with a sigh. “Fine,” he replied sharply, moreso than he had intended. “Don’t make me regret this.”

Overwhelmed with excitement and a sense of devotion, you wrapped your arms around him and found sanctuary in the crook of his neck. You would make it your mission in the coming day to see to whatever he needed in order to help him through the day without getting in the way. 

You both whispered your usual goodnights, sweet dreams, and willed yourselves to sleep. The storm that continued to rage outside became white noise; drowning out all the thoughts that prowled in your mind. 

You would not let him be weary, as you were the one who held the man that carried the world.


End file.
